May 27, 1984: When the Reds and Cubs had a wild day and Mario Soto went ballistic

Baseball in the '80s was wild, y'all. So let's talk about one of the wilder days of hardball from that great decade, brought to you exclusively by The Human Element.

The date was May 27, 1984. The place was Wrigley Field. The human elements were umpire Steve Rippley, Cubs hitter Ron Cey and Reds pitcher Mario Soto. The X-factor was a home run that was, until it wasn't. It all combined for more than a half-hour of semi-baseball action as an all-time doozy of a sequence unfolded.

These were the days before replay challenges, when bad calls on the field mostly just made for unhappy players, the occasional ejection and a healthy dose of heckling from the stands. But on this day, a bad call led to an all-time-classic meltdown that stopped just short of assault charges.

Here's what happened: In the bottom of the second, Cey hit a drive into the seats down the left field line off Soto that Rippley ruled a home run, putting the Cubs up 3-0. The Reds disagreed, and that set off more than 30 minutes of weirdness.

First, Soto went ballistic on Rippley, shoving him during the argument. Soto was ejected, but didn't realize he was ejected until much later.

When Soto learned of his fate, he rushed the field in anger and was intercepted by Cubs coach Don Zimmer — and that set off a benches-clearing fracas. If that wasn't wild enough, Soto later tried to attack fans with a bat after someone threw a bag of ice at him from the stands.

Eventually, the home run that set everything off was ruled foul, resetting the score to 0-0.

"Wouldn't it be something, after all this, if Cey walks up there and hits the first pitch out of the ballpark?"

Yes, that would've been something. But the story just wasn't meant to have that kind of ending. Cey came back up to bat and lined out to short on the first pitch, more than 30 minutes after his "home run." The Reds got two more outs and escaped the inning without allowing a run.

Both teams played the game under protest, and the Reds eventually won 4-3. Soto earned a five-game suspension for his antics.

Watch all 30-plus minutes of drama unfold below. The real action starts at the 20:15 mark.

As a side note, 1984 was a memorable year for Rippley, who was involved in another all-time-bonkers day a few months later. He was behind the plate on Aug. 12 when the Padres and Braves had a series of brawls in Atlanta that resulted in multiple ejections, arrests and a shirtless Ed Whitson.